Ashton Gate: Bristol City 1-1 Millwall

Tuesday 4 December 2018

Bristol City 1-1 Millwall

Aerial shot of Ashton Gate (Sports Venue Business)

Ratings
Overall Ground Quality : 9/10
Ease of getting there : 9/10
Atmosphere : 6/10
Programme : 8/10
View of Action : 9/10
Quality of the game : 6/10
The "football" feeling : 8/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10
Legroom : 6/10
Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 70/100

Approaching Ashton Gate

South Stand

Lansdown Stand

John Atyeo Statue

Media entrance in the Lansdown Stand

Lansdown Stand

Nelson Mandela House & the Dolman Stand

A large police presence

Mural inside the concourse area celebrating Bristol Sport

Lansdown Stand

South Stand

Lansdown Stand

South Stand

Atyeo Stand

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Bristol City 1-1 Millwall

With no disrespect, going to watch Bristol City v Millwall would have very little interest to anyone, other than fans of either team.
So why on earth would I drive 2 hours on a dismal Sunday in December to watch?
The main reason was, I (Adrian) was very interested to view the reconstruction of Ashton Gate and with a day to myself I had the opportunity.
This fixture was one of 3 moved by City from a Saturday to a Sunday. Not sure why, no TV intervention and the idea certainly hasn’t increased attendances as far as I can tell. The only possible explanation is Bristol Rugby having a home fixture scheduled for the same day. However as I see it, Ashton Gate is the home first and foremost of Bristol City FC and they should surely have priority over rugby who ironically used to play at the Memorial Stadium.
City have some bizarre ideas, the stadium has certainly been updated, capacity increased but I can’t see the club filling it unless they have a major cup tie. The promised land of the Premier League would help but they are light years away from that and selling 3 of their best players in the summer of 2018 didn’t help.
The Lansdown Stand looks impressive, it towers above the stadium and is visible before you pass under the Clifton suspension bridge on the A4. However, at half full it looks a tad self-indulgent. The other new construction is behind the goal, very smart externally and internally including a mural where it meets the Dolman Stand. The concourse areas meet so you can physically walk under both the stands.
The Dolman stand has been refurbished particularly in the concourse area and it’s here where I noticed more unusual happenings.
Photographs litter the ceiling of former City players, something I have no problem with, but in addition we have pics of rugby players, female footballers, athletes and would you believe former cricketers Ian Botham and Mike Procter. Both these players played in the area for Somerset and Gloucestershire respectively, but they have no association with the football club or the stadium. All very strange!
I’m guessing one or two other characters pictured play for some other clubs within the Bristol Sport operation. This is a strange concept which umbrellas all sporting clubs in Bristol except Bristol Rovers!
And so to the game.
Both these teams had excellent seasons last year but both are finding the going tougher this time around.
It was City asking all the questions in the first half but clear cut chances were few and far between. Josh Brownhills free kick pushed away by the Millwall keeper Jordan Archer but the closest we came in the first period saw Diedhiou crash a header against the cross bar following a cross from the right flicked on.
The second period opened with the visitors almost scoring. AIden O’Brian forcing City keeper Maenpaa into a sharp save.
However the home side looked good going forward particularly on their left where the left back Lloyd Kelly combined well with summer signing Niclas Eliasson and causing Millwall problems
Eliasson was born in Sweden, a Swedish mother and a Brazilian father, I guess that combination makes for a good footballer!
He certainly delivered some excellent crosses one of which was sliced into his own net by Jake Cooper to give Bristol a deserved lead.
But their failure to take chances proved costly, City couldn’t wrap the game up and Millwall started to get ahead of steam as they looked for an equaliser.
Jed Wallace’s free kick was well parried by the keeper but the warning signs were not heeded and with 12 minutes remaining, Millwall got their reward. Left back James Meredith delivered a long raking centre which was headed across goal by the veteran Morison for Shaun Williams to fire home a left foot shot and it was 1-1.
That was the last of the action for the goal scorer, he was injured in getting his goal. Indeed every substitution made by Neil Harris was a result of an injury and consequently we had 7 mins plus of stoppage time.
Realistically a point each is not much good to either, City are clearly rebuilding but attracting players and keeping them has historically been a problem.
Millwall were dogged and determined, all things you would expect but the fact is they are in the bottom 3 have several injuries and struggling for wins.
A heavy security operation was visible throughout the afternoon with Millwall visiting the city. The usual stewards running around but also a very strong police presence, men on the ground, horses and many police vans.
612 Millwall fans travelled west, I saw no issues at all but I believe there was an incident in a pub involving would you believe fans from the Netherlands.

Bristol City 4-1
Crystal Palace

The previous Saturday saw all the football league and
premier league clubs making a start to their new season full of hope and
optimism for the next 9 months. Excluding our cup visit to Fleetwood Town the
week previous on Monday night, this was to be our first league trip of the
season.

We left at 8:30am heading towards Evesham where after a few
problems with their postcode and location, we arrived at the newly builtJubilee Stadium. Previously played at Common Road, in 2006 they sold their
ground for housing and were ground-sharing with Worcester City while a new
purpose-built stadium is constructed on the outskirts of the town. The name
Jubilee Stadium was decided due to it being opened in the year of Queen
Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

Our next stop was just outside Cheltenham where Bishop's
Cleeve play on Kayte Lane. The club spent a number of years sharing the grounds
of other local teams such as Forest Green Rovers due to the sale of their
ground until the approval for a new ground at Kayte Lane was given in 1997. During
the 2001–02 season, Bishop’s Cleeve temporarily ground shared with Evesham
United on Common Road which was required whilst extra work was carried out
following the club's promotion. The club was able to return to Kayte Lane for
the 2002–03 season after the new stand and floodlights were approved, to be
followed in 2004 by a new clubhouse and changing rooms.

After going through the beautiful town of Cheltenham we
arrived at Cirencester Town's Corinium Stadium. The club plays at the
4,500-capacity Corinium Stadium. Gloucester City ground shared at the Cirencester
Town between 2008 and 2010 following the flooding of their ground, Meadow Park.

Just as we left Cirencester, we spotted a Tesco where we
decided to have lunch and purchase tonight’s tea using the very good meal deal
at Tesco (no product placement intended!)

We next travelled to Yate Town who play at Lodge Road, where
we found it was difficult to take photos. Yate Town moved to their present
ground in Lodge Road in 1984 and floodlighting was installed in 1988.

We continued towards Bristol with a visit to Mangotsfield
United who play at Cossham Street with a capacity of 2,500 even though their highest
ever gate is 1,253 against Bath City
during the 1974 season.

We next took a brief
visit to Eastville Retail Park where Bristol Rover’s previous home stood as
Eastville Stadium. Now taken up by the Retail Park and IKEA superstore,
Eastville is known for holding Greyhound racing and Speedway. Bristol Rovers
left Eastville in 1986 due to the club not affording the rent and opted to use
Bath City’s Twerton Park which was seen to be a cheaper option before moving
back to Bristol 10 years after in 1996. Two years after the move to the
Memorial Stadium, Eastville was demolished. Eastville is remembered for many
things including the flower beds behind each goal and being built near to a gas
holder, the constant smell of town gas in the air gave rise to the name used
for Bristol Rovers fans of "The Gas" or "Gasheads”.

We then visited Nevil Road Cricket ground where
Gloucestershire CCC play as well as featuring the odd England one-day
international meaning the introduction of temporary seating to accommodate the
fixture.

We had a short drive to the Memorial Stadium where Bristol
Rovers play but on this occasion didn’t take photos due to Adrian taking some
better photos on his previous visit. We sheltered under the covered terrace
from the sudden heavy rain.

Towards the red side of the City, we drove past the beautiful,
now under sunshine, Downes which is a large green space. After getting lost and
failed to go up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, we decided to collect our
tickets and asked a member of staff to take photos of the inside of Ashton
Gate. We later found out after reading the programme that the member of staff
we asked was the match day announcer David Lloyd who also guessed right where
we were from and who we supported! (Just like to say thank you to David Lloyd
for letting us take photos once again)

We attempted to get to the Clifton Suspension Bridge for the
second time and this time got it right. Once we were up there we saw some
lovely views across the city as well as spotting yet another Samaritans advice
sign which we saw on our trip to the Stadium of Light last February whilst we
were on the Wear Bridge.

Once we finished on the bridge, we drove back down towards
Ashton Gate and parked on Ashton Drive which is no more than a 10-15 minute
walk to the ground. We took cover from the rain in the Wedlock Stand and ate
our Tesco Meal Deal (I’m not doing this on purpose!). When the rain finally
stopped we continued to take photos of the outside and watch footballers and
directors attempt to park their oversized Land Rovers. We then decided to go
for a pint at first to the Coopers Arms before we saw a sign outside stating
nobody U21 was allowed in meaning myself (Ross) wasn’t allowed in even aged 18!
We opted to go to Bar BS3 which is a home supporter’s bar which we found
pleasant apart from the plastic pints glasses. After our drink, we walked back
to Ashton Gate and went in.

Ashton Gate has a
capacity of 21,497 and has been home to Bristol City since 1904. Local rivals
Bristol Rovers even played 5 home matches at Ashton Gate during 1980 due to a
fire that broke out at their ground Eastville.

The Wedlock Stand at the south-east end of
the ground is the oldest at Ashton Gate which was built as a covered terrace in
1928, converted to seats in the 1990s.

The Williams
Stand on the south-west side, which includes the directors' box and press box,
was built in 1958. The lower part of the stand was a terrace known as the Grand
Enclosure until it was converted to seating in the 1990s.

The Dolman Stand,
which lies opposite it, was built in 1970. It appears to dwarf the other 3
stands in the stadium. At that time it was built it had a small, flat Family
Enclosure in front of it, which was later built up as a new lower tier and
converted to seating. In the summer of 2007, the original wooden seats in the
upper area were replaced by modern plastic seats.

The most recent
addition to the stadium is the Atyeo Stand, which was built in 1994 to replace
an open terrace where Adrian endured the Storm of ’89 (Bristol City v
Nottingham Forest League Cup match) and contains new dressing rooms and a large
gymnasium.

The game saw a
strong Bristol City team rip apart a frail Crystal Palace team with goals scored
by Ryan Taylor, Martyn Woolford, Jon Stead and Albert Adomah for City whilst Kagisho
Dikgacoi scored no more than a consolation for Palace.

After the match
we ran back to the car and headed out of Bristol on the A4 going under theClifton Suspension Bridge before 10 o’clock and onto the M5.

With Ashton Gate
complete, I (Ross) now only have two more Championship grounds to do before I complete
the Championship (To date obviously). This trip on its own is 68 out of 92.

Tuesday 4 December 2018

Bristol City 1-1 Millwall

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